


Bay city

by bums3ob



Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: M/M, Mysterious, Running Away, Seaside, Summer, Walking, scorching day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:55:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24964111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bums3ob/pseuds/bums3ob
Summary: Descriptive story of Kevin's late evening whereabouts in the city, in where he meets a few boys in a strange place.
Relationships: Heo Hyunjoon | Hwall/Moon Hyungseo | Kevin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Bay city

Kevin was wending his way along the pedestrian walk right next to the river, slight sloped meadow embankment to his right on a muggy day. The recent rainy days and the proximity to the sea together with a scorching summer day had no mercy. He found himself short on breath, even when he was walking on a low-pace. His goal was to get the farthest possible from home, with no apparent imperative reason. Exhausted and about to sweat, he looked for a place to seat. Since the grass was still wet, he opted for the concrete blocks that worked as modern looking benches. Unfortunate because he wanted to lean on something but better than nothing, Kevin thought. He sat there for a long time collecting his thoughts and ordering them, putting them in drawers, wardrobes, hangers, folding and unfolding them as it they were clothes.

Thinking of clothes, he looked down to himself. He was wearing black leather shoes, perfectly ironed black chinos, a basic plain white V-necked t-shirt and a black denim jacket that had haphazardly sewed patches in various sizes and hues, from emerald green to a cherry red. Some of them were original of the jacket, and some others had been sewed after forgotten adversities such as rips due to falls and frayed edges happened over the years.

After analysing his outfit, which concluded in a satisfying self-praise for his good sense of fashion his sight returned back to the scenery. There were not many people taking a walk and the majority of them seemed apparently as suffocated as he was feeling minutes before. Focusing his sight on a far spot, his eyes wandered along the high buildings on the other side of the river, only a small spot among the buildings remained with a traditional architecture. In front of the road and nearer to the river, protruding an irregular half an oval on the river, there was a Buddhist temple surrounded by a small park, adding a green touch to the grey and blue buildings façades. The temple was black with red details and had direct access to the river by a pair of stairs facing each other.  
Looking a little bit more up, tilting back his head, he gazed at the flawless blue sky. After a short time, he started seeing tiny dots of light darting and transparent hairs and blobs floating around. Even knowing this phenomenon is pretty frequent and normal, he was getting nervous and couldn’t focus anymore on the sky, so he closed his eyes and shook his head. As if the shake had helped him clear his mind, he decided to head for the harbour before late night and maybe grab a light supper in a nearby restaurant before coming back home. He let out a big sight and stood up, walked towards the path again and parted direction to the sea.

Once routed, he realised he was nearer than what he thought when he walked across under the last two bridges that connected both sides of the city, one pedestrian and one for cars. Surprised by the reverberation when below the one that cars drove above which was not particularly big, he stood there for a moment. He did not realise how loud the sounds that hung over the city were until that point. Not even before when he sat and the road behind him had an unceasing flow of traffic noises and murmurs. It was a strange feeling, but not necessarily a bad one. It was one of the many matters of living in a city along with the sparkly nights with light every there and here and the fast-paced life. Kevin continued walking onshore. It felt more like diving into an ocean of humidity than walking.

Eventually he arrived to the point where the promenade bifurcated, one way straight to the breakwater and harbour and the other way following the natural seashore next to the road. It was not a big harbour. Kevin thought it stopped its growth halfway when they decided to build the main one far away to the east in a more convenient spot for the city. It had big platforms on the outside of the breakwater where medium cargo ships could ship, along with a few high cranes to carry containers. There was only one big ship anchored in that moment, half loaded with colourful containers all in the same shape. Whether it was going to unload or was loading, he didn’t know, but it seemed the worker’s day was over since there was no sign of hustle. Far at the middle of the breakwater, a curved wall spread until it joined the land again, leaving a gap towards the end of it, allowing the boats and sea to enter and leave, but there were no signs of ships. The sea remained calmed inside the marina and showed a broad contrast to the vast industrial scenery right next to it. The beach was small and not very wide with dark thin sand.

Kevin went straight to the pedestrian crossing farther into the promenade and crossed with ease, since there were not many cars on the road. Innovative and modern looking buildings that served mostly as offices were in the frontline mixed with dwellings and shops. He decided to take the first road that ventures through the maze of buildings towards the land.

Big and bright signs hanged in every building with appealing letters, trying to be more outstanding than the previous one. Restaurants, bakeries, modern set cafés, study rooms, technology shops, spare parts shops. The endless stream of information was overwhelming Kevin, who sought completely the opposite. Good restaurants were never on the big venues anyway, so he turned right to the first narrow road he saw.

A car wouldn’t have fit in it, and even if it did, it wouldn’t be able to open the car’s doors. The street was followed the previous one tendency, whereas this had less sparkling signs as the following buildings were lower and older. There were tangles of wires and power lines above the road, endlessly crossing from one side to another. Small lanterns hanged in the small cover that stood out, decorating the showcases of the shops and providing a faint yellowish light that blended with the white lights coming out of the open premises.

As soon as he set foot in the road, day changed to night in a split second. He wasn’t sure it was due to the dimness of the road or whether it was really night. Time didn’t matter to him and he refused to look his phone, worried that watching the blueish screen would distract him though not very sure of what.  
Surprisingly for such a narrow road, there was still space for restaurants to set standing cases to show the menu and dishes. So far no one did catch Kevin’s attention, who was more focused in the people around him and trying to remember all hanja he learned in high school as he was trying to figure out the Chinese characters written over the colourful lanterns.

A slim Japanese restaurant with particularly loud noises stood out in the passage. Kevin stood up looking the exterior. Next to the door was a bar with two tall seats occupied by two grown men who were smoking. The half empty bowl with soup in them signed suggested they had eaten noodles. In front of them, the restaurant opened with a window that connected directly to the kitchen and you could actually see the chef frenetically sauting noodles and manipulating ingredients and kitchen tools to and fro. Tiptoeing and as far as his sight could reach, the inside had a reddish lightning and walls. The window and doorframe were made of dark brown wood with traditional patterns and very likely Japanese decoration.  
Convinced simply by the peculiarity of the place and the sudden hungriness the smell was giving him, he decided to give it a try and have dinner in this restaurant.

As he saw from the outside, the restaurant consisted in one long corridor with a bar that followed the kitchen and turned left and the far end. The chairs were high stools with a solid backrest that reached half the customer’s backs and looked somehow uncomfortable.

Kevin kept going inside slowly whilst looking at the food that stood to his side when he heard a voice crying something to him he couldn’t completely grasp. He stood still and looked around at the bar trying to find the person who spoke and noticed the chef was making him gestures with her hands.

“The restaurant is full, there are not seats at the back. Sit here instead” she repeated after looking his clueless expression.

Kevin then looked and moved towards the seat the woman was pointing and faintly smiled at her, suggesting he really did understand this time. He would have wanted to sit at the back of the restaurant where he saw normal looking tables and chairs around two big columns decorated with Japanese-like scenery paintings in pinkish shades but he concluded this was not really bad since he could at least eat dinner.

Once seated, he grabbed the menu in front of him and examined it for a while until he decided he wanted a katsucurry.  
As he was waiting for some waiter or chef to look into his direction and ask for the food, he looked at his sides. To his left, there was a woman around her 30’s neatly dressed in a suit with her hair collected in a low long braid. Kevin believed she was a clerk judging by how quickly she was indulging the enormous ramen bowl she had, since these kind of jobs are very stressful, or at least that’s what he thought.  
To his right, there was a boy around his age with a black beret and excessively long silver earrings being one of them a chain that connected with a helix piercing. He was wearing a white t-shirt with thorough pink details around in the cuffs and in the front in form of patches and was tucked in the wrist of the pants. His jeans were black-pitch coloured with large holes that showed part of his thighs and knees.

After what he thought it was a quick and discreet glance at him (which maybe it was) he looked up again only to see the boy had turned his head to him and was looking straight at him. He had his hair parted in two allowing him to see a very clear and sharp black eyebrow. His features somehow resembled a cat and a pufferfish together: he had were monolids and cat-like slanted eyes, a wide and low nose and thin yet remarkable lips that looked too much like a drawing. His ears stood out clearly due to the beret.

The boy smirked at him and Kevin embarrassedly mildly smiled back in an effort to look away as soon as possible. Maybe he stared at him for longer than he thought since he was kept in his outfit.  
He decided the best was to look right in front of him for the time being, but couldn’t help but look again to his right side and stare the people at the background making a fuss with very loud screams, probably due to a heated conversation. As quick as he looked the clamour he lost interest the same way and returned to his task, not before briefly glaring at his lunch-buddy once again, successfully not being discovered.

Enjoying himself and the food, he realised the boys next to him went silent for a moment and started whispering among them. He pretended to be very focused on his dish and even looked at the hour in his phone put in airplane mode until some seconds later he couldn’t hold it but to look at the direction of his lunch-buddy. He and two others behind him were now standing up looking at him.

Kevin felt a little bit awkward but it serves him right for looking when they clearly were speaking about him.

“Hello friend” said the furthest boy to him, just after he had returned his sight to his food, which made Kevin look at them again. “My friend here thinks you are handsome”. He signalled his lunch-buddy. As soon as his words came out, the guy immediately feinted to hit him while the other used the boy in between to defend himself. This boy had a messy fringe and a two-block cut, very deep double eyelids and eyesmile. His nose was high and had plump lips, making his face look very small.

“Don’t listen to him. He is always saying nonsense” muttered the beret guy, still trying to hit his friend. “Whatever” he gave up and looked at Kevin. “Name’s Hwall. These are Sunwoo and Changmin”.

There was a brief pause and they greeted Kevin waving their hands, appearing one after the other like a domino behind the boy called Hwall. He greeted them back with a small bow without saying a word.

“Do you want to grab some beers with us?” he proceeded.

Kevin was reluctant at the proposal. He hummed to reassure he was thinking about the proposal and took the phone in his pants to check the hour. It was now half past nine. It would take him 30 minutes the least to come back home by public transport.

“If I go with you I will have t—“

“I take that as a yes. We will wait you outside” said Hwall. They left the local in a single file and the last one of them, supposed to be Changmin turned back to him smiling widely as he kept walking backwards. “We have already paid for your food! Don’t take too long”

Kevin opened the mouth to say something but it was too late and they were already out. This was by far one of the most unexpected things that has happened to him in the last weeks. Well, it would be normal but he did not expect to meet some boys his age in this particular place he ended up when enjoying one walk alone in the city and he also did not think they would actually break the ice with him so easily. It is not that is was a common event in his life either.

He could only think that they had paid for his food because he looked to Hwall before. Or maybe they were trying to blackmail him so that he does not have other option but to go with them now.  
He couldn’t be too careful. He didn’t know what kind of people they could possibly be or where they were going to take him to, but he was not thinking of declining the offer. When walking to clear up his mind he found himself more open to experiences and taking everything from a different point of view. He had nothing to lose anyway and he could politely explain them he has to leave early with some sort of excuse.

Having made up his mind, he focused on finishing his food as fast as he could.

* * *

He found the boys waiting outside, the three of them in a line under the small cover looking at the sky. The road was now gloomy not only because it was virtually night now, but the sky was partially clouded with a patchy drizzle falling over.

“No wonder it’s been so humid the whole evening” heard Changmin saying.

Kevin approached them and stood in line.

“So what’s your name?” asked Hwall, now facing him.

Kevin replied and as he expected, questions about his nationality arose. He explained to them that he had lived 14 years in Canada and then moved to Korea. While Seonwoo’s expression was serious in a chic way, Changmin face was moving all the time with endless expressions that showed prominent cheekbones despite his round face and a big elongate dimple. His hair was blonde and permed, he had slanted eyes, a wide nose, a small mouth and a very long neck that somehow didn’t spoil the rest of his features, but instead enhancing them in a good way. He wore a plain white t-shirt tucked inside his high-waisted ripped blue jeans with orange clothed shoes. Hwall seemed to be submerged in his words, paying close attention.

“I’d love to go to Vancouver someday.” “You will show us around right?” Seonwoo and Hwall said.

“If you ever come to my place I’d gladly do it" replied him, not sure of any different way to possibly answer these kind of questions.

**Author's Note:**

> Title is Junko Yagami's song, Bay city. I tried to capture the feeling of the song and was inspired by Murakami and Agatha Christie's writing styles. I wrote this long time ago, a sequel might be an option. Thank you for reading.  
> Here's my [twitter](https://twitter.com/tagcheek)


End file.
